facing up to your imperial past: the dutch

The Dutch are a very nice people:

‘Somehow, Dutch people have this smile built in’ - DutchNews.nl

But they also have a dark past:

Netherlands' Refusal to Remove Statues Speaks to Sense of Historical Victimhood

The dark history of slavery and racism in Indonesia during the Dutch colonial period

They are now facing up to this:

Bitter Orange: The Dutch face up to their past

PM Mark Rutte has apologised for atrocities in Indonesia, but some are still nostalgic for days of empire
Something long overdue is happening in the Netherlands. After decades of denial, during which pride in its explorers and conquerors has trumped regret at what was done to indigenous people, the country is beginning to grapple with its colonial past.
The reckoning began with Black Lives Matter and the Dutch role in the slave trade, but has now moved on to what was once the Netherlands’ prize colonial possession, the vast Indonesian archipelago, which it dominated for more than three centuries.
It was as recently as 2006 that a Dutch prime minister praised the can-do mentality of the Dutch East India Company that colonised and exploited Indonesia. But now the Netherlands is prepared to face up to what the prime minister, Mark Rutte, last month called the “shameful facts” of systematic atrocities committed by Dutch troops in its last, bloody, colonial campaign, the attempt between 1945 and 1950 to quell Indonesian independence.
Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum is known mainly for its Rembrandts and other masters of the Dutch Golden Age, an economic and cultural flowering in the 17th century partly funded by colonialism. It is now showing an exhibition on Indonesia’s independence struggle, called Revolusi!

Bitter Orange: The Dutch face up to their past - The New European

Here's a radio report on the exhibit:

New Dutch exhibition examines Indonesia’s independence | WTOP News

With more on what the museum is showing:

Looking Back on a Colonial Struggle, a Museum Stirs New Disputes - The New York Times

An Eye-Opening Rijksmuseum Show Confronts a History Long Downplayed in the Netherlands: Its Brutal Colonial Rule of Indonesia | Artnet News

How the Dutch are facing up to their colonial past - BBC Culture

On the other hand, it means there's a fair amount of multiculturalism in Holland:

Amsterdam's Multicultural Pubs | Mirza Softić's Page

(20+) Indonesians living in Holland | Facebook

Indonesian Area in Amsterdam? - Amsterdam Forum - Tripadvisor

Our story - The Indo Project

First- and second-generation Dutch wonder whether they'll ever be considered locals | The World from PRX

.

.

.